The present invention generally relates to video tape recorders (referred to as "VTRs", hereinbelow) and more particularly, to a tape loading mechanism suitable for use in a compact VTR such as an 8-mm VRT or the like.
A recent trend for compactness of the VTRs has brough about development of the 8-mm VTR standardized as a new VTR. A tape loading mechanism of a so-called inverse U-shaped loading method is advantageously employed in the 8-mm VTR so as to make the 8-mm VTR more compact and is known from, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,154 which generally includes a first loading means for drawing, in a direction oblique with respect to a cassette mounting face of a tape cassette, a video tape out of the tape cassette and loading the video tape onto a guide cylinder obliquely with respect to the cassette mounting face, a second loading means for drawing, in parallel with the cassette mounting face, the video tape out of the tape cassette and a tape driving means displaced together with the second loading means. This known tape loading mechanism includes four tape guide pins and is disadvantageous in that it is necessary to make a change between distances between adjacent ones of the four guide pins at the time of unloading of the video tape and those at the time of loading of the video tape, thereby making this known tape loading mechanism complicated in structure.
Furthermore, another tape loading mechanism of the above described type has been proposed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,886. In this prior art tape loading mechanism, the first loading means includes four tape guides, i.e., a pair of leading tape guides and a pair of trailing tape guides. At the time of unloading of the video tape, the leading tape guides are disposed in a recess of the tape cassette but the trailing tape guides are disposed outwardly of the recess of the tape cassette, i.e., outwardly of a tape loop. Thus, it is possible to secure the leading tape guides to respective movable bases. However, in the case where the trailing tape guides are secured to respective movable bases, it becomes impossible to advance the trailing tape guides into the tape loop due to operational restrictions associated with the inverse U-shaped loading method. Therefore, in the prior art tape loading mechanism, it is so arranged that erectable trailing tape guides are employed, namely, the erectable trailing tape guides are preliminarily laid down immediately after start of loading of the video tape and then, are erected after having been displaced into the tape loop, thereby making constructions of the prior art tape loading mechanism extremely complicated.